Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Order of the Phoenix mission (knit four socks, preferably single socks) is done.

I did Hedgerow socks for Gryffindor, in a BFL sock yarn called String Theory Bluestocking. The color was Firecracker, and I loved knitting with it. The pattern is basically columns of moss stitch.

The yellow ones (for Hufflepuff) are Embossed Leaves, and they'd be a great start to lace, I think, as it was pretty simple but looks good. The yarn is Wollmeise Twin in Olio Vergine.

The blue Ravenclaw socks are Tern, and I used Lorna's Laces Sportmate in Navy Pier. The color wasn't really dark enough, so I dyed it a bit bluer.

The Slytherin Green ones are the pattern Brave, which I got in the Tour de Sock last year. The yarn is Shire String (it's all speckley and I loved knitting with it) in the color Samwise, dyed by Pacasha from the House Cup game (see also blogs on the right). I think I started these first and finished them last!

This lot is my handspun Cormo from the Ton of Wool Project. I got 100g or so of it at Bendigo last year, and spun it into 325m of 3ply. It's 20 or so WPI...

I probably could have fit a few more strands into my inch marker there...

Mostly this month I've been getting the socks done and working on Byron's red jumper. It's getting there; should be finished in a few days :) The other thing I have been doing is walking around the lake, and it occurred to me that I could knit as I walked reasonably easily. So

Dyeing this month

Made the yarn for the Hat In Progress with dyece (food dye ice blocks in the steamer)

And dyed some sock yarn with Fair Trade Coffee, stuffed into the jar and left in the sun all day :)

This one is just a dip-dyed-in-a-pot with green, teal, blue and purple. Should spin into a bit of a gradient; we'll see, I suppose.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Someone in the Harry Potter game ran a little tutorial on dyeing self-striping yarn, and, even though I've done it before, it put me in the long-skein-crazy mood. So I dyed some BFL sock yarn into "house" colors (blue, green, red and yellow) to make stripey socks. It is fun, though the sheep and husband all seem to think me a a bit silly... I used a repeat or two to test it, making up some icord scarves for the mini models :)

Also dyed another self-striping one, but this little skein is small-hat-sized at the most ;)

I'm getting into NEWT part 4: Byron's dragon. The "egg" part is spinning 100g of cormo from the Ton of Wool Project (wherein Kylie Gusset got a bunch of Aussies together to finance her, and took charge of a thousand kilos or so of Tasmanian wool, and made sure it was processed 100% in Australia, and then divided it up amongst the backers) - I've never spun cormo before, and after all the long-fibred Romney, it feels a bit short, like merino, but I think I'm getting it thin enough. It sure is nice and soft!

The "dragon" part - Byron's top - is harder. I'm just not loving the red that he wanted... but I'm persisting. I'm about down to the underarms, now. The socks are going sooooo slowly. I think I've done about an inch in a week! lol.

I may have gotten distracted knitting baby things

Well, I have 20 minutes to clean this place, and then half an hour to get dinner in, and then my hubby will be home. It's my night off, so I get to run around crazy for the evening sit in the air-conditioned shopping centre eating chocolate healthy stuff and knitting socks.